Outbound is the equivalent of sitting in the countryside during late summer, knocking back a cold drink with ice, and relaxing while watching the sunset. This game may have the guts of the usual survival and crafting games that crop up all the time, but Outbound has done a great job avoiding many pitfalls in the genre.

Despite my worries, High on Life 2 exceeded my expectations for the sequel to one of the weirdest, most enjoyable first-person shooters I have played. With an entertaining story, engaging fast-paced combat, and a gorgeous world, this becomes a uniquely creative experience worth playing through.

REANIMAL is a fantastic horror game from the Little Nightmare veterans. The atmosphere and world are wonderfully crafted with a disturbing story and creepy characters. The gameplay differences help it stand out, though it still feels a little too close to home in some cases, but that doesn't detract from how great an experience the game is as a whole.

Sometimes, even good games fall through the cracks due to the sheer number of titles that exist, especially in the indie gaming scene. After playing Clawpunk, I hope more people discover this. It might not do anything wholly new or unique, but it does a great job with almost everything that matters.

My Hero Academia: All's Justice is filled with original content and new ideas that work quite well. I enjoyed the amount of single-player content we have, along with the enjoyable stories with Team Up mode and little bits here and there with Hero's Diary. The vast amount of characters and a great amount of customizability keep me coming back to play more, even after I finished the stories.

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined is a fantastic remake of the original that addresses many of its problems. The story has been streamlined with some great additions to make the other characters stand out more, while the combat has the accessibility settings and adjustments that the most recent games benefit from. It does feel a little too easy at times, which makes the strategic elements of battle feel less necessary, but it never fully detracts from the experience enough to regret playing.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails beyond the Horizon is a great next game in the JRPG series and sets the bar high for future entries in the series. The implications of the finale are worth playing through, with an exciting buildup filled with twists and turns I didn't expect.

TAMASHIKA is a weird, fast-paced FPS that doesn’t need an overwhelming amount of content to prove its worth. The balance of visual craziness and audio cues turns each run into a skill-driven rush to kill every enemy on screen and get to the end of the level as fast as possible. And with how tight the core mechanics are, it’s hard not to love every second of it. The game is extremely small, and I mean, only one procedurally-generated level small, but I still couldn’t stop myself from playing that same level over and over until the next day comes, and I can try a completely new level to top the leaderboard.

Capcom’s Legacy collections have been one of the few groups of retro releases that I’ve been looking forward to. Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is one of them. It feels very similar to the Battle Network games, both for better or worse, and all seven games that were released in the series have been wrapped up in a nice package with extras, quality of life improvements, and online multiplayer. It doesn’t change the quality of the games themselves as much, so there are still some big reasons why they may not be enjoyable, but as a fan of the Battle Network games, this was great.

Gecko Gods is a game of contrasts for me. I love the unique transversal mechanic and the atmosphere of casually exploring the world. Being able to walk on walls changes exploration entirely, and Inresin has done a great job with the overall gameplay.

Esoteric Ebb is a tough game to pin down, but the closest I could describe it as is a CRPG with Visual Novel elements. A lot of burden is placed on the writing, and fortunately, the writing is really good. Almost all action is handled through the dialogue system, and the traditional CRPG mechanics work really well for conversations. As long as you can cope with the somewhat irritating combat mechanics and RNG, Esoteric Ebb is a fun time.

After all this time, this should have felt like a return - something that rekindles what made the series special while confidently pushing it forward. Instead, Legacy of Kain: Ascendance feels like it’s caught between reverence and reinvention, never fully committing to either. For those of us who grew up with Legacy of Kain, it’s hard not to feel a twinge of disappointment. Not because it’s outright bad, but because it comes so close, so often, to reminding you just how special that world once was, without ever quite reaching it again.

Reigns: The Witcher is another solid entry in the series that fans of the signature gameplay of Reigns and The Witcher lore will enjoy. The dark humor and dedication to the lore are a step above the rest, while the addition of “quests” to guide how you interact with the story is wonderful. However, it still feels a little stale.

Motorslice is a fun game that feels great when it works, but the odd controls keep it from realizing that potential. The simple combat can be fun, while the parkour moves that we have flow nicely with each other and are accentuated by the good level design. However, there were too many times when I would want to do a specific move and ended up doing a completely different one. This would’ve benefited from a little more polish, but there is still something to enjoy here.

Legacy of Kain: Defiance Remastered offers slight visual enhancements, but the real upgrade is the new camera system and controls, which make the game much easier to play. Whether such a small change is worth the release of an entirely new game is up for debate, but series fans will probably want to check out the "best" version of Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

Despite the issues here and there, Romeo is a Dead Man feels like a SUDA51 game through and through, which is a compliment. There aren't many games that challenge status quos when it comes to their mechanics and style, but SUDA51 does. Does it work? Not all of the time. Can it be frustrating? Sometimes. However, there aren't many games that embrace this style and structure that direct correlates what the norms are.

In the end, Arknights: Endfield feels like a game made with quiet confidence. It’s dense, occasionally stubborn, and absolutely uninterested in chasing mass appeal. That won’t work for everyone, and it doesn’t try to. But for players willing to meet it on its own terms, Endfield offers a richly atmospheric, mechanically engaging experience that feels rare in the free-to-play space.

When it was said and done, Cooking Simulator 2 went in a different route than the previous game, sacrificing some of its uniqueness for a streamlined approach. Co-op and the blueprint system are easily the two best features of this sequel, with the former improving general gameplay in so many different ways. It does suffer a little when it comes to its progression systems, and I miss what made Cooking Simulator so engaging, but it doesn’t change how solid the experience is, especially with friends.

Airborne Empire tries to merge a role-playing adventure experience with a city-builder, and while neither area excels at what they do, the game is enjoyable for a playthrough of the Adventure Mode. I can't see myself returning for repeats or trying out the non-story modes, though.

Planet of Lana 2 is a worthwhile continuation that shows how emotional a beautiful story could be, even without words. The incredible art style remains unchanged from the previous game, and I felt the story held up as a sequel. The puzzles are a little bit on the easy side, but not enough to make it feel unenjoyable. The gameplay is very safe, not straying too far from what defined the original, which is both good and bad.

Directive 8020 is a solid story-driven thriller that has a few too many pitfalls. I love the story, and it gets significantly better towards the second half, but the first half felt more like a long introduction. The new Turning Point system is a great idea, and it allows easy access to go back and see what we could do differently for another run, which makes it a lot easier to try new pathways. The gameplay itself is a little too simple and easy, but it still has the same emphasis on choices that affect the story. It all works really well, but still falls short in a few key areas.

Docked presents a unique opportunity to manage your own shipping company; unfortunately, it ends up being more focused on moving containers than actual management, and a more balanced approach would have opened the way for a deeper gameplay experience. Unless you get a thrill out of moving container after container around the same dock area, this one may not be for you.

Bus Bound feels like it has a conflicted identity. Presenting us with a somewhat realistic driving simulation, backed up by almost no management or logistics gameplay. Unless you want to drive a familiar path, day in, day out, then Bus Bound isn't the game for you.

What makes Blades of Greed disappointing isn’t that it lacks ideas. The ambition is visible everywhere, in its scale, its expanded systems, and its attempt to modernise traversal. But ambition without refinement magnifies flaws. Where previous entries felt lean and focused, this one feels bloated and less confident in its own fundamentals.

World of Warcraft: Midnight feels more like a DLC of The War Within than a brand new expansion. The atmosphere, redesigned Silvermoon, soundtrack, and surprisingly detailed housing system are strong highlights, however. But they aren’t enough to fully compensate for uninspired storytelling, underwhelming class additions, and a noticeable lack of a defining expansion identity.